RIS ID
105950
Abstract
In recent years, in various places and on our blog ‘Radical Sydney/Radical History’ we have written about radical history. As radical historians we seek out, explore, and celebrate the diversities of alternatives and oppositions, arguing there is a basic tension between radical history and ‘mainstream history’, a history that is constituted to prop up both capitalism and the state. We see our history as part of the struggle against capitalism and the state. In researching the past, we do not do it nostalgically, but with utilitarian, political intent, recognising that the past has the capacity to variously inspire and inform the present and the future. In a nutshell, while mainstream history would like people to read it, radical history wants its readers to act as history makers; while mainstream history props, radical history unprops.
Publication Details
Irving, T. H. & Cahill, R. (2016). Radical History: Thinking, Writing and Engagement. Labour History Melbourne, (14 March), 1-3.